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At this place a plot was formed by the soldiers for killing Vela Nunnez and deserting to the army of Gonzalo, which was revealed by the following incident.

Such are the facts in regard to the withdrawal of Judge Black, according to the. best information I can obtain. The island of Alta Vela, or the claim for damages, is said to amount in value to more than a million dollars, and it is quite likely that an extensive speculation is on foot.

The judges still insisted that Cueto should surrender the fleet to their command, threatening to behead the viceroy if he refused; and though Vela Nunnez, brother to the viceroy, went several times with messages to induce compliance, the captains of the ships would not consent to that measure, so that the judges were constrained to return to Lima with the viceroy still in custody.

As "vela" is Portuguese a sail, I supposed I had discovered the origin of this, but I found afterwards they used the same cry when heaving anchor, and often chanted it to "hela," which is so much an universal expression of exertion and hard breathing that it is most probably a mere interjectional cry.

Let an honest curiosity be suggested to his fancy of being inquisitive after everything; whatever there is singular and rare near the place where he is, let him go and see it; a fine house, a noble fountain, an eminent man, the place where a battle has been anciently fought, the passages of Caesar and Charlemagne: "Qux tellus sit lenta gelu, quae putris ab aestu, Ventus in Italiam quis bene vela ferat."

For this purpose, he immediately ordered his brother Vela Nunnez to march in all haste with a detachment of forty light armed cavalry, and thirty musqueteers under the command of Gonzalo Diaz, besides whom ten of the friends and relations of Nunnez went as volunteers on this expedition.

He there found nations more civilized than those of the Orinoco, but that fed on the flesh of mute dogs. From the promontory of Paria, as far as Cabo de la Vela, little figures of molten gold had been found in the hands of the natives, as early as the years 1498 and 1500. The metal employed by the founders of Cauchieto came from a mountainous country more to the south.

The Royal Audience, its dignity and unanimity shattered by the turmoil in the midst of which it found itself, divided its forces equally on either side. A battle was fought between the Viceroy and the forces of Gonzales Pizarro, in the course of which the latter obtained a decided victory, and Blasco Nuñez de Vela was slain.

Fish is wisely preferred to meat by the white man, "affirming that it is much easier digested;" and a kind of herring, and the sparus known upon the Brazilian coast as the "tainha," the West African "vela," and the French "mulet," at times superabound.

Accordingly, one of these officers came up with Vela Nunnez, and the other got hold of Rodrigo Mexia and Saavedra with the son of Gonzalo Pizarro . Both of these parties carried considerable sums of money, which was pillaged by the soldiers of Hinojosa; and the prisoners were brought on board the vessels, where great rejoicings were made for the happy success of this enterprize, by which their acquisition of Panama must be facilitated, and because they had done especial good service to Gonzalo by the liberation of his son.